Page 11 of Deceptive Vows
A brief silence. Lucas leaned back, slow and measured.
“Wow. That’s quite the offer.” He chewed his lip, eyes never leaving Pasha’s face. “You understand, if you’re lying to me, I won’t wait for confirmation. I’ll kill you both.” Then the smile. Not warm but knowing. “And my sister? It’d be easier to baptize a cat?—”
The door to his office opened.
“Oh, you have company.”
My breath caught. I knew that voice immediately—soft, melodic, with a hint of honey.
Thea Kalantzis.
I turned my head slowly. There was no mistaking her now. The shadows were gone. The knife wasn’t in her hand, but her edge hadn’t dulled. She moved like someone who knew exactly how to kill and when to wait.
My pulse jumped, heat unfurling in my chest like a brand. I kept my expression neutral, even as the realization slammed through me.
I was sitting in a room with the men Marco wanted me to kill.
And the woman I couldn’t stop thinking about was one of them.
Chapter Four
THEA
The momentI opened the door, a tingle shimmied down my spine—part warning, part curiosity. And then my eyes landed on him.
Mr. Gumdrop.
An immediate heat bloomed in my belly. In the club’s shadows, he was attractive, but here, in the light, he was magnificent. Today he wore a light gray linen suit which made his eyes even more striking. The suit stretched across his broad shoulders while the sleeves molded to his arms. It made me wonder what other muscles might hide beneath.
My brother waved me in. “It’s okay. You should be in on this as well.” He nodded to the man next to Mr. Gumdrop. “This is Pasha Morozov and Nazar Volkov.”
Nazar. Russian. His name rolled around in my brain and danced on my tongue. “Hello, gentlemen. I’m Thea.”
As I crossed the room and perched on the desk across from him, Nazar’s gaze held mine—a challenge and a puzzle wrapped in one. His sharp cheekbones and dark blonde tousled hair gave him a rugged charm, but it was the quiet authority in his posture that unsettled me the most.
His jaw tightened ever so slightly, a flicker of tension that disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. Recognition, perhaps? Or something else entirely.
“Pleasure to meet you,” I said, breaking eye contact with Nazar long enough to address Mr. Morozov.
“You can call me Pasha, and it’s a pleasure to meet you as well.”
He was equally attractive, but a brokenness poured off him. Broken knewbroken. And if I couldn’t put my pieces together, there was no chance I could mend his.
Innocence and naivety were the only salve for him. Someone who could pull him out of his world for just the briefest of moments and give him peace.
“So, what are we discussing?” I brought my gaze back to Nazar’s.
His lips curved into a grin, as if he could sense the effect he had on me. The room suddenly felt several degrees warmer.
“They met with Marco earlier today. Apparently, he wants them to kill our entire family in exchange for part of our territory,” Lucas said, his tone pulling the room back to business.
I dragged my attention from Nazar, forcing myself to focus on Pasha. “Is that so?”
The lines around his eyes deepened. “Da.”
“We were discussing a possible plan to stop Marco,” my brother said.
I returned my attention to Nazar, letting a slow smile curve my lips. “Do I get to kill Marco slowly? I’ve heard flaying is fun.”
